Admittedly, one of the world’s greatest public health leaders was Dr. Lee Jong-Wook. He was the first South Korean to be elected as the head of a United Nations agency, the World Health Organization where he served for eight years as a leader. Dr. Lee had taken over as the director of the World Health Organization at a time when the agency was undergoing revival that had been initiated by his predecessor Gro Harlem. Despite this being a major challenge, his fifteen years’ experience working with the organization prior to his appointment proved significant, as he was able to steer the organization and the global health into higher levels. During his tenure, Dr. Lee addressed each challenge that presented itself with utmost dedication and passion as he was unwaveringly committed to the agency’s mission of assisting individuals to attain the best health.
Dr. Lee made many contributions to the health field, starting with his fight against two of the main challenges. These included a vaccine for preventable diseases for children and TB in which he was able to establish a successful partnership with the private sector that brought together leaders with skills who were came up with solutions. Dealing with SARS was also one of his agendas as the director of WHO considering that he advocated for increased global monitoring of infectious diseases in which he sought more funding from countries to facilitate the observation program (Ramen, 2005). HIV/AIDS and malaria fight in Africa went to a higher level during his tenure as he was focused on improving healthcare conditions in developing countries, strengthened by his belief that disease risk had a close association to a nation’s poverty level. Dr. Lee’s leadership style was transformational as he maintained a visionary approach by taking challenging steps to make sure future generations lived better lives. In his leadership style, he demonstrated the attributes of a transformational leader as he advocated for changes in the global health sector beginning with the fight against HIV/AIDS. Besides, he believed in putting his words into action.
Dr. Lee was a pioneer in many areas within the health sector beginning with the fight against TB in which he demonstrated his ability to bring together leaders in an attempt to consolidate resources and working together to eradicate the disease globally. Consequently, he established a team that would assist to enhance the role of the WHO in the fight against malaria, HIV/AIDS, and TB, which showed his belief in working together to achieve set goals (World Health Organization, 2016). Moreover, he was a visionary leader who mainly implemented policies that aimed at making the world a better place to live; he believed that failure to envision the future may one-day result to a day of reckoning. His success was mainly influenced by the passion to help. This is evidenced by the volunteer position he took after graduating in which he helped patients suffering from leprosy. However, inadequate funds to carry out the campaign against HIV/AIDS and TB in Africa was one of the factors that influenced his success as he had envisioned a region free of these diseases.
The fight against TB is one of Dr. Lee’s achievements, which I identify with as he came up with the global partnership to stop TB. Bringing together more than two hundred and fifty international partners was not an easy task, but he orchestrated the initiative and turned it into a success despite the many challenges that came up. However, Dr. Lee should have brought more African countries aboard, considering that TB was most common in underdeveloped countries (Jong-Wook, 2003). Access to TB drugs should have been made free for the poor and individuals suffering from HIV/AIDS as a way of reducing the mortality rate in under developed countries. Such steps would have seen the number of people infected reduce tremendously and the goal of having a world free of TB would have been realized sooner than expected.
Dr. Lee’s experience is a motivation as it shows that leaders need to aim at putting their words into action and work together to achieve set goals. Dr. Lee’s first initiative was to set up goals as WHO director, but he did not stop there as he quickly set things rolling by implementing strategies to realize the goals (Lee & Fang, 2013). The second lesson was the power of working together as a team, which was manifested through the TB group he set up leading to great advancements in the fight against the deadly disease. Dr. Lee’s style of leadership is inspiring as he led in a manner that brought diverse stakeholders on board to work together to solve a single problem. Therefore, following his leadership style could help one to advocate for change and vision what needs to be done in order to leave the world a better place than found. Additionally, putting of strategies into actions is depicted through his leadership style, which is integral in every successful leader because goals will be realized sooner.
In conclusion, Dr. Lee Jong-Wook was the first South Korean to be elected as the head of a United Nations agency, the World Health Organization. Here, he served for eight years as a leader and achieved many things in global health issues. He contributed a lot to the healthcare sector beginning with his fight against two of the main challenges at the time, which were vaccines for preventable diseases for children and TB and HIV/AIDS. He also established a team that assisted in enhancing the role of WHO in the fight against malaria. This leadership showed Dr. Lee’s ability to organize people to work as a team.
References
Jong-Wook, L. (2003). Global health improvement and WHO: shaping the future. The Lancet, 362(9401), 2083-2088.
Lee, K., & Fang, J. (2013). Historical dictionary of the World Health Organization . Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press.
Ramen, F. (2005). SARS: Severe acute respiratory syndrome. New York: Rosen Publication Group.
World Health Organization. (2016). Dr LEE Jong-wook: Biography. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/dg/lee/biography/en/
